PM Lauds Spirit of Youths, Over Two Crore 15-18 Age Group Youths have Taken Jabs
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELH, Jan 12: Even as the prime minister Narendra Modi lauded the “sense of responsibility” of the country’s youth who have responded in large numbers to the government’s appeal for vaccination of the young ones in 15-18 age group, the centre on Wednesday told the states and union territories to take special care of availability of Oxygen as the Coronavirus cases kept surging.
“Health facilities providing in-patient care and oxygen therapy should have buffer stock of medical oxygen sufficient for at least 48 hours,” the Centre instructed States on Wednesday being stung by acute oxygen shortage during the second wave of infections last year.
In a letter to States, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan directed that all districts should ensure that oxygen concentrators supplied to them were fully functional. “Their proper upkeep and maintenance need to be ensured,” he said. He also underlined that Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) tanks at the health facilities should be sufficiently filled and an uninterrupted supply chain for their refilling should be ensured.
As India logged 1.94 lakhs new Covid cases on Wednesday, only marginal increase from Tuesday’s tally but the active cases crossed 9.5 lakhs, the highest in the last 211 days, the Prime Minister said the “sense of responsibility” of the country’s youth had manifested in the quick pace of vaccination. He pointed out that more than two crore youths in the 15-18 age group have already taken the vaccine since the drive began on January 3.
After virtually inaugurating 11 government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, Modi said the future would belong to societies that invest in healthcare. Modi said the Covid-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the importance of the health sector and listed out the various health and medical education related initiatives of his government. “The once in a lifetime covid-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the importance of the health sector. The future will belong to societies which invest in health care. The government of India has brought many reforms in the health sector,” he said in his virtual address. “Learning from the pandemic, we keep working to ensure inclusive, quality health services to all our countrymen,” he said.
Even as Covid continued to cause concern for the authorities, a recent study on the behavior of the Coronavirus provide much relief to the worried people if proven true. It said the virus become 90 per cent less infectious within 20 minutes of becoming airborne, losing most of its ability to infect after the first five minutes, according to a groundbreaking new study that looks at how the deadly infection survives in exhaled air.
The findings of the study published by the University of Bristol’s Aerosol Research Centre reaffirm the importance of wearing face masks and maintaining social distance to prevent the spread of Covid-19, researchers say. The study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, is the first of its kind to simulate how exactly coronavirus travels in the air after it has been exhaled, The Guardian reported.
“People have been focused on poorly ventilated spaces and thinking about airborne transmission over metres or across a room. I’m not saying that doesn’t happen, but I think still the greatest risk of exposure is when you’re close to someone,” the study’s lead author Prof Jonathan Reid said. To simulate what happens to the virus when it becomes airborne, the researchers developed an apparatus to generate virus-containing particles and allowed them to float between two electric rings for anywhere between five seconds and 20 minutes in a tightly controlled environment.
According to the study, when the viral particles leave the lungs, they quickly lose water and the lower levels of carbon dioxide in the environment result in a rapid increase in pH. This affects the virus’s ability to infect human cells, the study said. In a typical office environment, where humidity of the surrounding area is generally lower than 50 per cent, the virus became half as infectious within five seconds, after which the loss in infectivity became slower and more gradual.
But in a more humid environment, for instance, a steam room or shower, the decline is significantly slower. However, the researchers found that the temperature made little difference to viral infectivity, contradicting the belief that the disease spreads faster in hotter climates.
Scientists have also drawn almost similar conclusions in rate of infections in countries like the United States and Britain where the surge was very fast and very high. They are seeing signals that Covid-19’s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the US, at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically.
The reason: The variant has proved so wildly contagious that it may already be running out of people to infect, just a month and a half after it was first detected in South Africa. “It’s going to come down as fast as it went up,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.
At the same time, experts warn that much is still uncertain about how the next phase of the pandemic might unfold. The plateauing or ebbing in the two countries is not happening everywhere at the same time or at the same pace. And weeks or months of misery still lie ahead for patients and overwhelmed hospitals even if the drop-off comes to pass. “There are still a lot of people who will get infected as we descend the slope on the backside,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, which predicts that reported cases will peak within the week.
In India, the health secretary in his letter said, “Health facilities across the country have been strengthened with functional Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants and there should be adequate inventory of oxygen cylinders along with back-up stocks and robust refilling systems. It should also be ensured that these cylinders are filled and kept ready,” the Centre instructed.
Private health facilities providing oxygen therapy services have been asked to assess their medical oxygen infrastructure capacities. “A possible strategy and mechanism to leverage the private sector in times of peak of demand can be explored,” the Centre said.
Stating that the emerging scenario calls for immediate measures by States to ensure optimal availability of medical oxygen, the Centre said deployment of adequately trained staff was vital.
It added States had been told oxygen control rooms should be reinvigorated for prompt resolution of issues and challenges.
Stating that India has noted a sharp surge in Covid cases with active infections crossing 9.5 lakh on Wednesday, the health ministry said the case positivity rate rose from 1.1 per cent on December 30 to 11.05 per cent on January 12. India recorded 1,94,720 fresh Covid-19 cases and 442 deaths in the 24 hours ending 8 am Wednesday.
As many as 300 districts in India are reporting weekly Covid case positivity of more than 5 per cent, the Union government said on Wednesday as it urged people not to treat infection due to Omicron variant as common cold and get vaccinated. It said Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Gujarat are emerging as states of concern due to the rise in Covid cases there.
The government has also revised its testing and hospital discharge policies. All symptomatic cases, including all risk contacts, need to be tested, ICMR chief Balram Bhargava said on Wednesday. He further said that asymptomatic cases are not required to get tested unless they are at high risk and added that home quarantine is mandatory for all contacts for 7 days as per guidelines.
Addressing a press conference, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal Wednesday said after a review meeting by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Covid-19 situation, the government has revised discharge policy with severity categorised into mild and moderate cases. Mild cases would be discharged after at least 7 days from testing positive and non-emergency for three successive days. There is no need for testing prior to discharge, the health official said. In case of moderate infection, if there is resolution of symptoms and the patient’s Oxygen saturation level stays above 93% for three successive days (without O2), then such patients will be discharged.
Surge in Covid cases being noted globally; highest ever single-day rise worldwide was 31.59 lakh on Jan 10, the government said. A total of 115 confirmed deaths have been reported globally and one in India due to Omicron, says health ministry.
Meanwhile, a whopping 1,700 Delhi Police personnel have tested positive for the novel coronavirus infection since January 1, officials said on Wednesday, adding that a special camp has been organised for police headquarters staffers to administer booster doses to the eligible beneficiaries.
“A total of 1,700 personnel of the force have tested positive for the infection from January 1 to January 12. All of them are doing fine and are under quarantine. They will be joining duty after recovery,” a senior police officer said. The strength of the Delhi Police force is over 80,000, police said.
